It's official: USF provost on her way to Houston

As expected, the governing board for the University of Houston System today confirmed USF Provost Renu Khator to lead the University of Houston and the UH system.

Khator is expected to assume the president/chancellor role by January, leaving behind the university where she began two decades ago as a visiting professor and worked her way up.

The UH System Board of Regents picked Khator as their top choice last month but had to wait until today to officially hire her, under provisions laid out in state law.

“It will be my job to build the four universities of the UH System into a model metropolitan institution of higher education for the 21st century, one that provides access and excellence with equal ease,” Khator told a Houston ballroom filled with well wishers, according to UH officials. “There is already so much to be proud of, and I look forward to helping UH becoming the state’s next flagship research university.”

Khator, 52, has been USF provost since 2003, and her husband is an engineering professor there. Natives of India, they have two grown daughters.

USF has not yet named an interim replacement for Khator or decided on a search process.

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Gradebook features education articles and insights on schools in Florida, focusing on Tampa Bay area schools. What's the latest from the Florida Department of Education? How is the FCAT being used to compare Florida schools? What's going on in Tampa Bay schools? Get an insider's view from the Times education reporting team.